Vote for your favourite SUV in the very first Telegraph Motoring Awards, which
forms part of this year's Telegraph Festival of Motoring.

This year’s Telegraph Festival of Motoring runs from Monday April 29 to May 3. After a simple and free online registration, you’ll be able to tour the exhibits, "walk around" the models, look at interiors and book a test drive.

It really is going to be a motor show like no other. For a start you’ll be looking at it from your home or desk, so it will be a motor show on your terms, with no travel or expense involved. And you’ll be at the heart of the action, with a daily interactive press conference from a variety of motor-industry leaders.

You’ll also be able to chat online with showgoers via networking lounges, and there’ll be a library where you’ll be able to download exclusive content such as wallpapers, videos and games and enter exclusive competitions. At the end of the week, there will be the Telegraph Motoring Awards ceremony, where the winners will be decided by you.

The Telegraph Motoring Awards will be divided into a number of categories, starting right here with SUVs. To vote for your favourite, scroll to the bottom of the page.

Forty years ago the 4x4 vehicle didn’t really exist outside of a construction site or a farmyard. You might say that Range Rover changed all that, although those first two-door examples of 1970, with their wipe-clean interiors, were still far from luxurious. The idea of a comfortable, good-looking 4x4 which behaved like a car on the road but with the ability to deal with highly changeable weather and road conditions was dubbed the Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) in the Eighties.

In the United States, the first SUV was arguably the 1984 Jeep Cherokee XJ, which went on sale in the UK in 1993. It was a lighter, more nimble 4x4, with greater interior space. The pattern was cast and, with a few exceptions, this informed the SUV/4x4 market until about 15 years ago, when a new breed of SUV, the crossover, made its appearance.

Combining the chunky looks of a station wagon, the comfort of a passenger car and the raised ride height and four-wheel drive of a full SUV, these portmanteau vehicles were aimed at suburban buyers in the snow states of the US. European car-makers resisted the trend at first, but buyers clamoured for this type of vehicle and the new category swiftly established itself.

These days, a crossover SUV doesn’t even guarantee four-wheel drive. Last year’s runaway bestselling 4x4 was Land Rover’s baby Range Rover, the Evoque. Yet not all Evoque models have drive to all four wheels. Nor do all the versions of the next bestseller, the Kia Sportage, nor the third-placed Honda CR-V.

Buyers might like the looks and the high driving position of the crossover, but not always the extra weight and economy-bashing drag of the 4x4 system. In fact, most experts will acknowledge that a set of all-weather tyres can often get you farther up a snowy hill than four-wheel drive.

As well as being one of Europe’s fastest-growing sectors, SUVs are a UK sensation. In the past five years, while British new-car sales have been largely moribund, SUV sales have risen from 136,525 – 6.4 per cent of the total market – to 201,102 last year, almost 10 per cent of the total.

If there are trends visible in this growth it’s epitomised by last year’s two big winners, the Evoque and Sportage. The former shows just how important looks are in buyers’ minds, with the Evoque being effectively a concept car that you can drive on the road. The Kia looks good, too, and is very good value for money, which is probably the second most important key to success.

So which is your favourite? On the left is a list of last year’s top 10 bestsellers. We want you to let us know which one you think is best by voting at the bottom of the page. Next month, we’ll present another category for you to pick your winner, and there will be another four classes to vote in after that.

From your votes, we will compile a shortlist, and the winning models will be announced at the Telegraph Motoring Awards, the culmination of our new Festival of Motoring, which takes place in April.